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DROWNING BY NUMBERS

2 February 2002

By Peter James

The Future of the Past: Archaeology in the twenty-first century by
Eberhard Zangger, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20, ISBN 0297643894

EBERHARD Zangger’s snappy title suggests that this geoarchaeologist, an
expert on the reconstruction of ancient landscapes, is about to discuss
cutting-edge techniques in archaeology. Alas, what little there is, in a book
which is aimed at nonspecialists, is merely a springboard for some bizarre
historical speculations.

In the early 1980s, Zangger’s work revealed that, near the end of the Late
Bronze Age in around 1200 BC, parts of the Mycenaean city of Tiryns had been
buried by a massive …